‘X Factor’ Finale Recap: The Winning Act Is Revealed

Find out who went home with a $5 million-dollar record contract!

The X Factor finale on Dec. 20 was packed full of Christmas songs, hot boy banders and emotional montages. Basically, I was a sobbing, pathetic mess, you guys. The top three arrived via a ridiculous red carpet during their joint opening performance of “All You Need is Love” and it was actually really good. I couldn’t tell if that’s because it was pre-recorded or not, but whatevs. I liked.

But let’s get to the goods, shall we?

Christmas Joy:

Tate Stevens hit the stage first with “Please Come Home for Christmas” and was surrounded by a bunch of hot Mean Girls-esque ladies. I got particularly emotional during the messages from his family and hey, we learned that people call him “Tater.” Yes, like Tater Tot.

Fifth Harmony let my fave girl Camila have a huge solo in “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Here). She rocked the gigantic bow again! They relied a little too much on Dinah’s falsetto, and girl is no Mariah Carey (sorry), but I still enjoyed it. These ladies have come a LONG way.

Carly Rose Sonenclar rose above the mess that was the night before and took on the classic “All I Want For Christmas is You.” She instantly gave me chills and let’s be honest, she’s the only one who could ever pull off this song. Ignore the dancing soldiers in the background. That didn’t happen.

A Winner is Crowned:

The first act eliminated was Fifth Harmony, which wasn’t much of a surprise. As much as these lovely ladies have grown over the last few weeks, they only started getting really good toward the end. But no worries, Simon assured us we’ll be seeing a lot more of them in the future. A record contract perhaps?

The competition was essentially always down to nice-guy Tate and 13-year-old diva Carly Rose. They sang Miley Cyrus‘ “The Climb” together before the results and once again, I was an emotional mess. (Such a sucker for this stuff.) But in the end, Tate Stevens took home the whole thing!

While I would have loved to see Carly win, there’s no denying Tate deserves that money. Such a humble and talented guy! Don’t worry, guys. Carly will get a record contract or Disney show, for sure. Congrats, Tate!